About Us

Here is a quick history

• 1970s-1980s – Born and raised on a dairy and grain farm in rural North Dakota. Lots of time outside; so much time with animals and plants. Graduated with honors, hopes and dreams 1992
• 1990s – 2000 – Moved to Fargo ND. Attended NDSU. Worked. Graduated MN State Technical College with Associate’s Degree in Accounting. Worked. Fell in love; married
• 2000s – Graduated Concordia College with degree in Child and Family Studies and a MN teaching license in Parent and Family Education. Grew our Family.
  Taught with Moorhead Public Schools in ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) program for 17 years. Continued growing, learning, and educating myself.
• 2018 – Found Tinkergarten – a program that echoed my values and vision I wanted to create. Fell in love with teaching and learning outside. Left MPS ECFE, to focus on learning solely outdoors. Continue professional education clock hours – a forever learner
• 2023 – Tinkergarten shifted to a different business model; Open Spaces LLC created. Here we are!

My Story

I grew up in a barn. Sure, I lived in a house, but the activity on our dairy and grain farm centered around the barn. Milking the Holstein cattle twice a day and working with the other animals – chickens, ducks, geese, a goat, horses, pigs, cats and a dog. When I wasn’t working with the animals there was work to be done in the garden. I did not love gardening growing up, yet now being more grown up I adore it. Seeds planted long ago sprouted deep roots and are continuing to grow. The animals and plants all require care, attention, and lots of time. Outside time.

I much preferred the company of the animals to my siblings (and I believe they felt the same). 

As a teenager the drive to “get away” from home was strong and led me to study Business and Accounting at NDSU in Fargo.  The large college was foreign and felt alienating to a farm girl that grew up in the middle of ND graduating from a small school.  I felt more in touch with the community of friends I made while I worked at the FargoDome when it was built.  This led me away from college into full-time plus work.  Overtime was nice; I was young and physically fit.  I still wanted my degree though and after a few years transferred to MN State College and received and Associate’s Degree in Accounting.  That led me to four years working non-profit accounting with the NDSU Development foundation.  During the time of working and education I met my husband while working together at a toy store.  Twenty plus years later, we still love playing together. 

The pull of wanting to work with children drew me back to college again and this time I tried Concordia College in Moorhead.  I intended to go into Elementary Education but met Dr Mary Hallquist and she convinced me that a degree in Child and Family Studies and a license in Parent and Family Education was right for me.  And it was… for almost twenty years.  I worked in the Early Childhood and Family Education Program with the Moorhead School District and received so many trainings and much more education through working with families.  The more I learned, the less I knew.  I love studying parenting and learning as I parented my own children that I didn’t know nearly as much as I thought I did.  Ahhh, humility.  Part of parenting and finding out we are but one part of this world. 

So my parenting journey led me through reading a lot of resources and trainings in Positive Parenting, the Structure Nurture Highway (Jean Illsley Clarke) and much, much more.  My husband and I chose not to watch much television, and we read books together (out loud) in the evenings instead of binging anything (this was in a time before binging when one would have to wait each week as new episodes aired on the television). One of the first books we read together was “Aflluenza”.  It formed a lot of our views on protecting our children from the onslaught of marketing directed at these tiny, developing humans whose brains were not ready for that kind of decision making.  We jumped on board the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (founded 2000) and are strong supporters since, even now that the organization is known as Fairplay.  With this venture of Open Spaces LLC, the whole community can join us during Screen Free Week with different free play opportunities. 

My husband and I began Open Spaces LLC with the idea of going back to the work that I started when I began with ECFE in Moorhead.  Simple activities to support families in the best possible environment for the healthy growth and development of children, which is the Earth.  The ECFE I left was not the same as the one I started with.  Current educational trends push academic learning younger and younger; push teachers to feeling under a microscope and judged by actions and inactions in a classroom. Popularity and politics push reforms that are not supported by decades old research.  Current societal trends (the birth and overwhelming influence of the Internet) push norms away from research-based best practices as one can find their point of view supported anywhere online regardless of research.  Popularity wins over true best practices.  I am fortunate to be able to make the choice to walk away from that and dare to try something new.  Yet something that is as old as time.  Teaching and supporting others solely outside.  I’ve looked to nomadic and Indigenous cultures for guidance.  I’ve looked to Nature Preschools and Forest Kindergartens and their veteran teachers.  I found Tinkergarten® while still working in Moorhead schools and was inspired.  It felt like all I wanted to create… and there it was already existing!  Tinkergarten® was a new program when I joined and has changed and is now morphing into another new form.  I have loved leading TG classes; it is based in simplicity and love of our outdoors.  I’ve learned a whole new way of being and connecting with others and the Earth.  I’m back to my roots.  It is terrifying and lovely.  I can still support parents, share learning with children and grow together with my community. 

What am I made of:  I am made of flesh and blood, soil and water.  I am a product of my environment and am my own unique self.  Life is full of uplifting, triumphant events and tragic, heartbreaking losses.  Both shape me.  I am resilient.  I am strong.  I am filled with doubt.  I am human.  I am a part of this world.  I am important.  I am not too important. 

What gives me energy:  time alone with nature, time sharing nature and awe with others, noises of nature, awe and wonder at the beauty of this world, gratitude for all that is shared with me.  Committing to living my values.  Live the value of simplicity – no makeup, minimal furniture, gardening, simple basic living.  Live the value of honoring the Earth – gardening, keeping our family garbage to less than one 30 gal garbage bag a week, making thoughtful and intentional purchases, being thoughtful and intentional in all things with life – reciprocity with world, kindness to others.  Money has never been a goal or priority for me.  Movement/moving in nature – hiking, kayaking, meandering, getting lost and found, watching nature.

What depletes me?  Pop culture, large crowds, overpowering smells and sounds and manufactured needs, those who create their own problems by subscribing to manufactured cultural trends yet are unwilling to change to solve said problems as it would inconvenience them or make them feel “bad” (no one wants to review what exactly their actions teach for fear that was not their intent – better to just say you have good intentions or intuitions than admit that overdoing/overindulgence comes from a loving heart).  Overindulgence is a passion for me to teach about, yet depletes me as it is one of the hardest concepts to teach.  Especially to those who are so fragile and love the labels society sticks upon them and they upon themselves (calling out the popular trend of using psychological problems as labels – anxiety, OCD – when those using them are not truly diagnosed and would not be)

What do I stand for?  Parenting against the grain (limited screens/advertising), slowing down and enjoying each moment, movement every day, simple play based learning, gardening for all humans, observing your child and learning from them (Magda Gerber influence)  Mixed age community learning through simple materials.  Simplicity: easy to understand and accomplish; plain and natural.  Life has ups and downs but with popular culture and corporations driving demand, we make it increasingly complicated in the US.  We need to look to our Indigenous cultures, my Scandinavian heritage, and others to find our healthy normal and commit to living our values every day.  I commit to living mine. 

Movement is essential to life… yet it’s not something I have always loved.  I’ve regained a new fondness for it after losing some mobility from a bicycling accident.  Now I glory in moving outdoors – hiking, kayaking, swimming, etc.  I won’t win any marathons and am not athletic (nor competitive), yet I love the ability to move and rejoice in regaining ground that slowly slips away with age.